Lysander and I made love in a hut the islanders had decorated with flowers and seashells. Luckily, the partying kept the much more solemn specialists and experts at bay. There would be plenty of time for analysis. For now, I just wanted to be with Lysander knowing I didn’t have to worry about losing control again and accidentally incinerating him.
Part Three
The Reckoning
Chapter thirty-one
Lysander
Goingbacktoschoolafter experiencing the entirety of Kaden’s power was anticlimactic. The islanders treated Kaden like a god, with me as his companion. Then, when we were back on the airship, Kaden and I were put through tests and interviews over and over.
I was quicker to become irritated than Kaden and finally told them I was done with the interviews. He, however, was like the Buddha we’d seen in the dream together. He answered the same questions over and over. He did experiments when asked. Even the finer things that had given him trouble were completed with no problems. He was now truly a master of his powersandhis patience.
“Are you okay?” I asked a few days after we returned to school, and finally had a moment to ourselves.
“Yeah, I’m great. Why?” he asked.
“You’re so quiet and calm. All that tension you used to carry around is just gone.”
“The volcano burned it out of me,” he said, chuckling.
I kissed him. “You’re snarky too, but seriously, I know they’ve been putting you through your paces since we got back. Are you sure it isn’t getting to you?”
Kaden rolled over. “Now I know and understand what I am, Lysander, I’m finally no longer afraid. I’ve never not been afraid. Afraid I’d be abandoned, afraid I’d be moved to a new home, afraid of what my foster parents would do, then after I was sold, afraid every day of what the men I encountered would do to me. I’m no longer afraid, Lysander. It’s like a veil has been lifted from my eyes, and I see the universe as it is. And the truth is, it’s nothing to be afraid of.”
“Like what? You’re no longer afraid of dying, or no longer afraid ’cause you know you can kick anyone’s butt that comes up against you.”
Kaden’s hand paused as he was sweeping it through my hair. “I don’t think there is such a thing as death. Everything keeps recycling.” He resumed the stroking and leaned down to kiss me. “But yeah, I’m not concerned about anyone trying to hurt me any longer, either.”
He lay back on the bed and stared at the ceiling. “I guess the biggest relief is that I no longer worry about what might happen if I lose control. I will never lose control again, not as long as I have my faculties about me. That’s the greatest relief of all, I think.”
We stayed like that until we fell asleep. My boyfriend had always been special, but now he was even more so. Not only did he have control over his powers, not only was he the most powerful man in the world, but he was the very essence of calm and collected. That put everyone, even me, at ease.
“Do I really have to do it again?” I asked Elana, who had just told me to practice siphoning off her Fire powers.
“You know the answer to that, you’ve done well with my Air skills, but you still have to learn to take only small parts if you don’t want to die if you ever find yourself in battle again.”
I huffed and tried again. Pulling at Elana’s powers and gently taking only small bits of her energy, then banking it in the earth. In Professor Sturgis’s class, we learned the opposites of each power. Air would build Water and Fire, but was subdued by Earth, well, sort of. Wind was an acceleration of Air when connected with Earth. Fire was subdued by Earth and Water. Water was subdued by Earth and Fire.
So, naturally, when I pulled Elana’s powers, I banked her Fire elements into the earth to contain them without extinguishing them. “Your powers are rare too, Lysander, but at least we know more about them than Kaden’s.”
As much as I hated the exercises, I could feel myself getting stronger by the day. More than once I zapped Kyle’s telekinetic skill when he was threatening me with some of his never-ending practical jokes.
I’d only done Kaylee’s powers when we were practicing, and she volunteered to let me. Everyone’s powers returned within an hour or so of me absorbing them. If I stored them in the elements around me, they returned a little slower, but no one had ever been without their powers for more than two hours.
I was forbidden from ever practicing with Kaden. Even though he was my lover and my polarity. His powers were so intense if I absorbed them, even a small aspect of them, I’d be wiped away. “Just don’t ever try,” Elana had warned.
I couldn’t imagine why I’d ever need to. It was fun to harass Kyle, but I only did it when he had it coming, and Kaden never had it coming. If anything, he was even kinder and more gentle-hearted after the island incident.
Word spread of Kaden’s actions in the South Pacific, and the island was on every social media platform and every news outlet worldwide. Kaden’s name was never mentioned. Instead, the media had adopted the Islander’s name for him. Gedi. “So, Gedi is your superhero name, I guess.”
Kaden just smiled and shrugged. “It doesn’t matter to me what I’m called.”
It does have a nice ring to it. “Gedi, sort of like Yeti, except you play with fire and not snow.”
“Yeah, it’s cool, but I don’t think it fits. Building the island required all four elements. The Fire element was just one of them.”
“Trust me, it was the most impressive from where we were standing,” I said.
